By Espie Angelica A. de Leon
The Final Pitch, a business reality TV show on CNN Philippines, is now accepting applications for its third season to start airing in March 2019.
Deadline for filing of applications is on November 26 and filming will begin in December 2018.
This was announced by The Final Pitch producer Streetpark Productions during the media launch at RCBC Plaza in Makati City in November 15.
The Final Pitch gives starting entrepreneurs, including those in the technology space, a platform to pitch their ideas to some of the country?s high achieving investors on the lookout for the next mind-blowing business solution.
?Our goal is to connect them to the right people, get them funded, and help them scale to eventually become successful contributors to nation building,? said TV producer John Aguilar, the show?s creator and host.
Party-list lawmaker and businessman Mikee Romero, who will be one of the investor judges, added: ?SMEs are very important for the country. They comprise the backbone of our economy.?
The season kicks off with an initial pitch where all participants present their ideas to the investor judges. Those with the best pitches advance to the next round where they will attend a bootcamp with mentoring opportunities. A final pitch by the show?s finalists caps the season to make partnerships official and close those sought after business deals.
In addition, a P500,000 grant from the show?s partner BPI Foundation awaits a chosen social enterprise.
The judging panel for Season 3 combines investor judges from the previous season as well as new faces including a millennial entrepreneur who opened her first restaurant at age 19.
The returning judges are Romero and Mega Global Corporation president and chief executive officer (CEO) William Tiu Lim. Completing the roster are new judges Michael Dargani, president and CEO of Ice Dream, maker of Baskin-Robbins ice cream; Mark Vernon, founder of Tagcash, a blockchain and crypto-payments and crowdfunding platform; and Romero?s young daughter Milka, owner of Sushi Nori and nine other restaurants.
?I wouldn?t close the door to anything. But I?m particularly interested in the real estate and tech spaces right now,? Dargani said.
?The business plan has to be really really strong to convince us,? said Romero, who is also an energy and power industrialist. ?The revenues of each of the business plan have to be solid or at least have somewhere to go to. The third aspect is the reality of running the company.?
He explained that many SMEs stay ?lost?, setting extremely high valuations for their business and other unrealistic expectations. ?They have to come back to earth? he stressed.
The Final Pitch mentors include Thames International Business School president Joel Santos, Upsmart Strategy Consulting chief strategist Filbert Tsai, Gorriceta Law partner Mark Gorriceta, and others.
To submit an entry form, log on to TheFinalPitch.ph/application.
